Senate Passes Bill to Force States to Make Voter Registration Easie

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS,

Published: May 21, 1992

WASHINGTON, May 20—
With Democrats seeking higher turnouts at the polls, the Senate voted 61 to 38 today to make voter registration easier by allowing people to register by mail and as they renew their driver's licenses.

Changes in voter registration and limits on campaign spending have been the subjects of some of the most heated and partisan debate in the Senate this year, as Republicans and Democrats jockey to exploit or duck the electorate's cynicism and anger.

Several Democrats noted that the rise of Ross Perot as a likely independent Presidential candidate is a reflection of voter disgust with both parties, an emotion they hope to redirect squarely at the Republicans as protectors of business-as-usual politics. Veto Is Predicted

Senate Republicans have vowed that President Bush will veto the voter-registration bill, although the White House says he has not made a decision.

"We would likely veto it in its current form," a White House spokeswoman, Judy Smith, said today. She said that the bill would be costly for the states, that it could lead to fraud and that "the Voting Rights Act of 1965 already provides sufficient tools to challenge registration procedures that are discriminatory."

The House, which overwhelmingly passed a similar voter-registration bill two years ago, is expected to take up the matter again in a few weeks.

Democrats in the Senate lack the votes to override a veto, but they promise to make a political issue out of what they are portraying as a Republican effort to block electoral reform and to keep minorities and the disabled from voting.

Only 6 Republicans joined 55 Democrats in voting for the measure. Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina was the sole Democrat against it.

Today's vote came a week after the Senate failed to override Mr. Bush's veto of another measure that Democrats promoted as electoral reform, a bill that would have limited Congressional campaign spending. Explaining Low Turnout

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who led the Republican effort to defeat the registration bill, characterized it as "a solution in search of a problem" because, he said, low voter turnouts demonstrated that the electorate was basically happy with its leaders. And, he added, allowing people to register when they renew their driver's licenses is no guarantee of higher turnouts, since turnout has declined in 7 of the 10 states that have had such a procedure since 1972.

Republicans, who twice in the last year used the threat of a filibuster to block the measure from coming to the floor, say the bill will encourage vote fraud. Democrats, on the other hand, say Republicans fear that increasing the number of registered voters would add millions of Democrats to the rolls.

There is little evidence, however, that an increase in registration will lead to a considerable increase in voter turnout.

The measure, known in Congress as the "motor-voter" bill, would replace the patchwork of registration procedures that exists from state to state. It would require states to allow eligible citizens to register to vote at the same time they obtain or renew their driver's, fishing or hunting licenses. States would also have to offer voter registration by mail and at the offices of state agencies like welfare and unemployment offices. It would also prohibit removal of a registered voter's name from voter rolls for failure to vote.

Twenty-seven states, including New York and New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have some of the registration rules required in the bill. Of those states, five -- Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia -- have adopted motor-voter procedures in recent months. The Connecticut legislature approved a motor-voter measure two weeks ago, and Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. is expected to sign it.

The bill, which if approved would become effective on Jan. 1, 1994, would not apply to states that do not require voter registration or that permit registration on Election Day.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the new registration procedures will cost the states a total of $20 million to $25 million a year, largely to computerize lists, with the cost decreasing after five years. Republicans say the expense will be much higher. Motivating Voters

Democrats said that the inconvenience of registration deters many citizens from voting and that their failure to participate in elections makes them feel only more alienated and apathetic. Republicans said that voter turnouts were high only in times of crisis and that turnout in general had little or nothing to do with registration rules.

Senator Wendell H. Ford, Democrat of Kentucky, said, "The bill will knock down the confusing and restrictive practices which continue to frustrate the right to participate in our democracy." He suggested that opponents of the measure were trying "to achieve through archaic and confusing registration procedures that which they cannot achieve through outlawed practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests."

While some Republicans have argued that the bill's provisions intrude on states' rights to regulate their elections, Senator McConnell said the bill's "most disturbing aspect" was "its potential to foster election fraud and thus debase the entire political process in this country." He warned that states would try to save money on the new procedures by doing away with registration completely, making it impossible to verify voter eligibility.

An aide to Senator Hollings, the only Democrat to vote against the bill, said Mr. Hollings was concerned that the requirement for mail registration would increase the risk of vote fraud.

But supporters of the bill said it contained sufficient safeguards against fraud, including making both false registration and procurement of fraudulent ballots a criminal offense.

Senator Mark Hatfield, an Oregon Republican who is a sponsor of the bill, said the motor-voter measure enacted in his state six months ago had already resulted in the registration of 72,000 new voters with no reports of fraud.

A coalition of 60 voter and civil rights groups lobbied hard for the Senate measure with letter-writing and telephone campaigns.

"Persistance has paid off," Susan S. Lederman, president of the League of Women Voters, said today. "Americans need national voter registration reform to break down the barriers that discourage and discriminate."

Richard A. Cloward, executive director of the 100% Vote project of Human Serve, a New York-based voter registration group, predicted that the legislation would raise voter registration to 95 percent, from 60 percent. "The Civil Rights Act of 1965 stopped Government from preventing people from registering to vote," he said, "and this legislation goes the final step by imposing on Government an affirmative obligation to register the eligible electorate."